C40's Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
Pilgrim
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Pilgrim »

@C40 just wanted you to know I read through your journal from the beginning and greatly enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing so openly. Yours was the first journal I read (somewhat randomly picking). I feel like I'm reaching out to a celebrity. Great job on FI and being so disciplined. I'm impressed with your intentionality of thought and actions. As others have mentioned, your graphs make it easy to follow along too.

I could relate to the sentiment about always looking forward to the next move, including all the planning involved. I'm the same way. I often think of what a friend told me a long time ago, "We are living in the good-old-days now." Hard to see that sometimes. I often reflect fondly on various stages of my past that at the time I couldn't wait to get out of.

After all your travels across the US via van-living and now International, I did about fall over when you mentioned Wichita, KS as a a target place to settle in. I say that because it's my hometown and, probably due to familiarity, not my personal favorite. However, a lot of people love it, and the cost of living is low. At one point I split a $450/mo apartment with a roommate so our housing was very inexpensive. I definitely prefer Kansas over Oklahoma or Nebraska. What attracts you to this city, if I may ask?

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

Pilgrim wrote:
Wed Feb 10, 2021 8:55 am
After all your travels across the US via van-living and now International, I did about fall over when you mentioned Wichita, KS as a a target place to settle in........ What attracts you to this city, if I may ask?
  • I grew up pretty close to Kansas, so I am used to the mid-west, and have family near there.
  • I like cheap and small homes. Wichita has those as most of the homes built seem to be in the 1950s and maybe 60s - before houses really started growing throughout the 70s-90s. Also, in the U.S., the cheapest housing area is the southeast. But, that area has problems. I think Kansas has prices similar to the southeast, but the people are not as fat and uneducated.
  • I prefer to settle down in a place that is "on the way up", or has potential to. For example, I would never buy a house in Portland, because in some ways it clearly has peaked, and may decline in coming years. I've actually heard of a handful of people who decided to move from Portland to Wichita.
  • Moderate climate. Comfortable outside nearly all the year. Can garden.

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

———————————————————————

2020 SUMMARY - - PART 2

———————————————————————

I’ve realized that I didn’t really give much of a summary of how 2020 was for me, but mainly just the charts and the ramblings. So, here are some more details

I will cover these categories:
  • Relationships
  • Location (living in Vietnam)
  • Joy, Fulfillment
  • Fun and Hobbies
——————————————————

RELATIONSHIPS

——————————————————

FRIENDS
Aside from my girlfriend, I haven’t made close friends here. The problem is that I haven’t tried much. I do have some acquaintances and, I guess I’d say loose friendships. I have some ‘coffee friends’ that I meet about weekly, and another that I see about weekly also. I have been intending to try to make more friends, but I don’t really do so. A large part of this is that it is not a problem for me to spend quite a lot of time on my own.

ROMANCE
I was dating a lot in Q1 - meeting many new women. Some of it was great, some ok, some ~boring. I gradually got into a serious relationship with one. It’s great in some ways, but with some challenges of course.


——————————————————

LOCATION

——————————————————

Vietnam is great, and I think the city I live in is one of the better in Vietnam. It has good:
  • Landscape (along coast, nice beach, small mountains right nearby)
  • Weather (for 9 months of the year)
  • Cost of living. For a city this nice, it is extremely cheap
  • Safety
  • People are nice and friendly
The thing I dislike most about it is the air quality. There are other cities towards the south with better air quality (at least right now). But, for now, that doesn’t motivate me enough to move.

There are some other really nice things:
- The lower end of scales of things you can buy goes down further than in the U.S. There are apartment that can be rented for $50/month. I don’t want to live in one, but I think it is better for me, because now the kind of place I want to rent is around the middle of the scale, so there are many options.
- Transportation in Vietnam is set up nearly ideally for me. The vast majority is done on small motorbikes. Transportation methods in Vietnam evolved as walking — to bicycles — to small-engined motorbikes. Whereas in other countries it was more like walking — horses — wagons — cars. So now, in the wealthier parts of Vietnam, the vast majority of people get around on motorbikes and scooters (in the U.S., people would call them all “scooters”). The result is that roads take up less space. Parking takes up little space. Neighborhoods can be far more dense. Transportation is more efficient (perhaps in the U.S. the average to transport a person is around 20mpg/person. Here, a motorbike means about 50mpg/person alone, or 200-300 per person when there is a family of 4 on one bike.).. Cities here are built without large freeways. The speed is 50km/hr and under. So, in the medium-sized city where I live, any road can be walked across, and any road can be ridden on bicycle. There is rising car ownership, and if it continues, it will be a huge problem.
- Living happens more outside here. Places feel much more alive because people are out and about. Families go out together to the beach. Markets are bustling. In the U.S., people are almost always inside boxes. Inside their house. Inside cars. Inside buildings at work. You really don’t see people that much. Here, when driving, you see all the other people because you and them are sitting on motorbikes and close by. Sitting outside in a city, you hear things going on around you. A mom calling her child. Kids playing. Neighbors talking. Construction of a house nearby. In the U.S., when I sat on my porch, 98% of the city sound was cars.
- Labor cost is so low. If one wishes to outsource cooking, it doesn’t really cost any more than buying ingredients and cooking yourself unless you optimize your ingredient sources very well (by shopping at markets rather than a store in a building, AND getting good deals at the market.)



WEATHER
Most of the year, it is amazing here. Almost perfect, though a bit hot and humid. The winter rainy season was rough this year. I think it was the ‘worst’ year out of the last 20. It has been longer than usual, colder, and rainier. We had 4 or 5 big storms - one or two classifieds as typhoons (hurricanes). There was some bad flooding, but not in my city because it drains well into a river and the ocean. There was a long period of complete cloud cover. I lived in Portland for half a winter, and there it was better, because almost every week would have one full day of sun. But here during rainy season, we can go 3 full weeks without any sunshine. That weather impacted my mood more than being stuck at home by lockdowns. It has finally improved, and is now about perfect.


COVID IMPACT
Vietnam has been perhaps the best country in the world for Coronavirus response and control. For the vast majority of the year, people here have been able to live as normal without any fear or risk.

It has been great living in a place where the government is acting effectively in the best interest of the people (at least, with regard to Covid). IMO This also ends up working best for the economy.

I think this has resulted in me having a far better year than I would have almost anywhere else. Even in other SE Asian countries - most have not done as well.

Now in February, the 3rd or 4th outbreak in Vietnam started. This one is the largest so far. It is mostly up near Ha Noi (400 miles from me). The timing is bad because it started just before the huge Lunar New Year holiday. I declare that if they are able to eliminate this outbreak and get back to zero again, I will mount a Vietnamese flag on my rooftop terrace.

——————————————————

JOY, FULFILLMENT

——————————————————


I’ve been happy about many things here. Lots of good days and good moments. I have an easy life in a cozy place. I made my life extremely simple. I pared things down a ton in order to move around from country to country. Then I stayed in one. So, at times my life was too simple. I was bored, or, more specifically, felt unproductive. As I felt more sure I would stay here a long time, I made changes that have helped - getting more hobby equipment, and building some relationships.

Those equipment includes gardening supplies and plants, a decent motorbike, a good gaming PC, and mediocre home coffee equipment. Plus I have the pens and camera gear that I brought to Asia.

Now, most days I spend 3-12 hours doing something that I feel is productive (gardening, reading, exercise, investing). That is important for me personally, so, lately, I feel better about my life.(See the next section, “FUN & HOBBIES”, for more detail)

I’d rate my current level of satisfaction with life at about 7/10 - so, quite good.

**A note - I had written the above sentence about a month ago. Since, I have been re-reading the ERE book, and one or two sentences in the book caused me to think about how I have used my goals and measurements a bit wrong. Generally, I have set my goals ‘by feel’, and have made a habit of populating goals always starting with similar categories (Financial, health/fitness, social, etc.). I’ve at times felt that I have too many different things listed as goals. I’ve even forgotten them for significant periods of time. From work experience, I learned that it is possible and usually better to focus goals only on things that really need to be changed - NOT to make goals for all categories.

My long-term measurements have been quite specific - what I would consider PPIs, or sub-measurements. Like net worth (in year) or SWR.. or bodyweight and body fat.. or time to run a mile… I thought that I should start using some more top-level wellness measures for myself, and narrow my goals to the ones I want to improve. I made up an initial list and will probably start updating them at least monthly. They are quite subjective, things like feelings of:
- Financial success/security
- Health
- Fitness
- Joy/Fun/Excitement
- Feeling of progress
- Social/relationships/love

I would give these subjective ratings 1-10 scale.

It's possible that an evolution of this journal will include less sharing of financial data, and more of this kind of thing. I’ve already shown you plenty of money info, charts, etc. There isn’t really anything more to show unless I make some significant changes, and the list of measures above are more important.


——————————————————

FUN & HOBBIES

——————————————————

The hobbies I’ve been doing lately are:
  • Gardening
  • Reading
  • Exploring on motorbike
  • Learning about Vietnamese culture
  • Going out for coffee
  • Coffee at home among rooftop garden
  • Going to the beach or mountains
  • Playing games on computer
  • Time with girlfriend
  • Time with friends/acquaintances
  • Exercising
  • Writing with fountain pens
  • Investing work
  • Watching sport online (MMA)

GARDEN:
For the garden, my apartment is great. I have a small room, but plenty of outdoor space: about 500 square feet of outdoor area, with some of it covered. So far, I have ~70 different plant species. Many of these are ones I can clone, and I enjoy cloning a lot. Currently, about 1/3 of the plants are ones I’ve cloned (plus another 100 small succulent clones that I’m not counting in that number). I’ve been meaning to share pictures, and perhaps I will fairly soon. The garden can help with other goals - providing a better place to sit and work than inside my apartment, and making a better area for having guests/dates/girlfriend to come hang out in.

ertyu
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by ertyu »

Hahahaha my kind of man

H0BBIES

*Coffee
*And also coffee

:D :D

Glad life is treating you well man

What is your trading/investing strategy currently like? What size of stash do you recommend for someone who wishes to be a layabout in danang

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

ertyu wrote:
Tue Mar 02, 2021 4:21 am
What is your trading/investing strategy currently like? What size of stash do you recommend for someone who wishes to be a layabout in danang
heh, yes. I have caffeine sensitivity and need to limit it. Thankfully, there is a shop here that has some really good decaf.

I still invest focusing on dividend income. Quite a lot of focus on dividend growth, but also some high yields as well, particularly REITs in my IRA accounts. I've finally started to do some more speculative shorter-term (like 1 month to 2 year timeframe I guess) stock buying, but only in small amounts thus far.

As for size of stash, IDK. In Vietnam it is easy to live on less than $10k per year if you stay put. Frequent healthcare, or going 'home' to another country would cost more.

nomadscientist
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by nomadscientist »

This is a very enjoyable and informative journal, thank you.

I think you are very lucky - though not only lucky - to have been in Vietnam in this time. I am glad you enjoy life there.

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RFS
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by RFS »

Hey C40, have you considered training at any of Da Nang's MMA and/or BJJ gyms? I saw that you listed watching MMA as one of the hobbies. I stumbled upon McGregor vs. Diaz 2 one day and was completely mesmerized, which led to eventually signing up to train jiujitsu. It has been one of the best things I've ever done for making friends and building my social capital.

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

@RFS - I did look at some when I was searching for a new gym, but I didn't join an MMA gym. The one that I think looked good and serious, it seemed the classes would be taught in Vietnamese, so it would be difficult for me. There are a couple gyms where foreigners go but they mostly seem like powderpuff places. I don't know the real term, but you know what I mean, not serious, more like tai bo. I did do some training at a Muay Thai / MMA gym more than 10 years ago. I liked it a lot, except I didn't like getting hit in the head. After training - even just light sparring - my brain would hurt. I didn't want to get more and more into a hobby/exercise/sport that included getting hit in the head. Relating to exercise and stuff, I may still do something. Even if only hitting bags, shadowboxing, or pad work with a person, that would be nice.

As for BJJ, it does seem interesting. I've never tried it. One reason I'm not so excited is that when I hear guys who are really into it, they are also telling about how they fucked up their back or neck doing it. But yeah, I could see that being a really good way to make friends.

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

Here is a garden update, mostly in pictures. It is often changing or being reorganized. Mostly because of the sun changing position in the sky and having sunlight and shade in different spots.

My plants are all on a rooftop terrace that is part of my apartment. When I arrived, it was empty, with just the table and chairs. The general idea with this garden is that:
  • It is something fun to do. I like gardening and plants
  • Good way to learn some new things
  • To develop a good area at home for bringing over guests. I imagined having friends, acquaintances, dates come over to hang out up here, have coffee, etc. So far, I haven't done much of that. This is not an "if you build it, they will come" situation :-P
  • Also grow some food. I have done some, though I don't show it much here.

Once I started putting plants up here, my landlord asked/allowed me to bring up some plants that belong to him but that were not doing well down at grown level. These are the larger plants like the trees and the big ivy with the pole.

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This white stand came from my landlord. It is a shoe rack. It had gotten old and was starting to break. I reinforced it with some pieces that I took off a pallet when I converted that pallet into smaller pieces, one of them raised (visible in other pictures)

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In the above picture, you can see the kitchen area of my apartment. It is really simply, and not very ergonomic. Cooking during rain is a problem if there is wind, as the wind always blows from right to left as pictured, blowing rain onto me if I am near the sink. I rarely cook at home, so I don't care about improving it.

----------------------
Some more details
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I found this bench laying in an empty lot (someone left it there as trash). I carried it home.

Bonsai are big here, though mostly folks have big ones, kept outside their house. Sometimes chained up to prevent theft. Many businesses have really huge bonsai outside them. I think only old men care about them here. A problem with actual bonsai trees is that they grow slowly and take a long time to really get a lot out of. In the meantime, I started messing around with rosemary plants, which are shrubs and can be made to look like a tree. They grow much faster.
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One of the problems of this garden, especially with it being up on the roof, is that it is vulnerable to high winds. Last wet season (November-January) there were some big storms (typhoons). VERY WINDY. Whenever there was a big storm, I brought nearly all the plants inside. Next rainy season I will have far more plants, and that will be far more work. But if I don't bring them in, they will take a lot of damage and some be totally destroyed.
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Very rudimentary reinforcement of the shoe rack shelves:
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barelygrass
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Tomatoes. These really did poorly. I planted them at the wrong time, but also I am not sure whether they would ever do well here.
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-------------------------
CLONING
-------------------------

I have been doing quite a bit of cloning. Here are some of them:

getting ready to start succulent clones:
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zipper plant clones growing. These ones clone really easily
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here are some others. These have grown REALLY slowly.
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At the bottom are monstera clones
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Trying to clone an orchid.. I don't know if I'm doing it right
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This plant is really easy to grow and to clone. It smells great. Good one to give away to people as a gift.
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I haven't done a count in quite a while, but I would guess that as of now, about 50% of my total plants are ones I have clones. I will slow down buying any new plants, and now most of my garden expansion will come from cloning, and just the plants getting bigger. There is a lot of sun up here, and some of these plants can grow rapidly.

--------------------------------
Some before and afters
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Here is a plumeria tree that I bought up from ground level. Down there, it got little sun, and way too much water from rain. My landlord said it hadn't made any flowers in a long time.

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here it is recently, with flowers
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In this pot was a dead tree and a tiny little spiral ginger plant. I took out the spiral plant.
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and here it is now:
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I have also taken clones from this, and have 6 or so small pots of it now.

Also, look at the plumeria tree again. There are some little purple leaves hanging off the back left side of the pot. I took that out, grew it, and have been cloning it. This "inch plant" grows quickly and clones easily.
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Now, the bottom shelf of this shoe rack is completely full of it. The picture doesn't show it very well.
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So far, the plants that I have had a lot of success cloning are: (Sorry, I don't have all the proper names memorized)
  • Zipper plant (sort of a succulent - a type of Crassula). Have about 10 pots of it now from one that I bought
  • Monstera. Have 7 or so pots now, from one purchased
  • Spiral ginger
  • Inch plant (aka wandering jew). - From that one weak little plant to about 20 small pots now
  • A plant with big white leaves. (think the name is Syngonium Podophyllum, or "arrowhead plant"). This has been a slower cloner.
  • "Devil's Ivy". I may make more of these to hang over the front balcony
  • Various succulent types. (sedums, echeverias, leafed crassulars, and the zipper crassula)
  • Snake plants
  • And some others, but the ones listed here are the ones that for me have been easier and faster (except as noted). IDK if these are as easy to grow and clone in other climates
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Next steps are:
  • Build more shelves for holding more plants. All along the right side of this picture, and another on the left. Probably in three levels.
  • Develop a system to make it easier to care for and correctly position the plants. I have an excel file that I use as a plant info database. I put pictures of each plant, and various information about them. I might use a system of two little round stickers on each pot - the first to indicate sun/shade requirements, and the second to indicate how dry to let the soil get between watering. It gets hard to remember those details for so many different plant types. This could make it easier.
  • Keep filling out garden with plant clones and growth, and only a few new purchases of different plant types
  • Have people come over to hang out more
  • As the clones keep growing and become exponential, start doing something with them. Give them away. Sell them for money. Sell them and donate all the money.
  • Start more food growth for nutritional supplementation. I don't cook now, so I'm thinking more like plants to put into the blender and drink
  • If orchid cloning goes well, eventually have a bunch of them hanging

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

Also, new record high net worth.. blah blah blah..

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Most of my family seem to be doing pretty well these days. My Mom retired about 6 months ago. She has her home paid off (a small condo that she likes). Plus the campervan I built out for her. She started taking her work pension payments and social security, which are something like $2,500 per month in total. So, she should be good.

My brother is kind of a big spender, but now he has what was his dream job some years ago - to do only technical work (no management) as his own one-man company from wherever he wants. He makes a lot of money, so he is still able to save a lot. Today I asked and he said his savings rate is around 60%. So that's cool


Also, it seems that once again, Vietnam has basically defeated the coronavirus. Their most recent outbreak started in January, and now they have not had any new cases since March 25. Before, I declared that if they get rid of this one, I will put a Vietnam flag up on my roof, so I guess it is time to do that. This is the third time that Covid has been brought into Vietnam and started a significant outbreak, and been eradicated.

Stasher
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Stasher »

Well done Vietnam on properly managing Covid19! Has the general public been extremely supportive to achieve this unified with public health measures?

Great to see that Plumeria thriving on the patio. Big fan on the Monstera plants, hope those do well for you. Funny you mention the Rosemary as I have been slowly pruning my big Rosemary back each year to develop more on bonsai inspired tree look.

The stock market is crazy, I get concerned that I need to do something to prepare for an eventual correction and then just end up doing nothing.

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Ego
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Ego »

Wow! Spectacular. C40 turns his attention to something and it blooms. Nice.

ertyu
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by ertyu »

awesome garden. thank you! awesome job on the plumeria -- also didn't know one could clone succulents like this, i always liked succulents but thought i had to buy each one individually. thanks for this initial bout of education, shall research more :D

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

Here are some things going on in Vietnam now:

1 - Another Covid outbreak. Biggest one in Vietnam so far, by far. I'm worrying it could get out of their control.

2 - Covid Vaccinations have not really started in Vietnam

[A] - Given #1 and #2, and comparing to changes in the U.S, I was starting to wonder if the tides are shifting and we are approaching a time where it would be better to be in the U.S.

Something I have a habit of doing while in these lockdowns is to think about next life phases, or just fun things I’d like to do. While here so far, I have also stuck to my intentions of just relaxing, staying put, and not moving on too soon. But now we have the [A] situation. And,.. now we have:

3 - Likely related to the above outbreak and it being a result of poor government choices, there is now ‘crackdown’ on Visa/Work Permit fraud, and visa extensions. I have been extending my visa month-by-month. Each month, I have an agent take my passport to the immigration office in a big city for extension. So far, it always works out. They are starting to deny some people. When that happens, they are suddenly overstayed. They can get an exit visa and must leave within 15 days. There is no coming back until borders are eventually opened.

So, now I am worrying that I may have an extension denied. And I am considering options. The options are:
  • Start working here. Get a work permit and temporary residence card. I don’t want to do this because I don’t want to work, and also because I don’t want to be stuck in a job. If you leave/quit, the work permit and TRC are suddenly invalid. The jobs that I could get for sure/quickly are teaching english. It’s easy work, but I don’t want to do that.
  • Get Married! This, aside from the marriage part, is the simplest and surest way to stay here long-term. My ex-girlfriend would probably marry me for this purpose. I don’t think it’s a good idea. I could see myself staying here a long time and getting married here, but not now, not rushed.
  • Go stay/live in another country. I haven’t looked close, but there are options. Some of them, nice places. I think now is still a bad time to go to new places. I’d rather go back to the U.S. than to a new place right now.
  • Do nothing and hope my extensions all work out. Probably a bad idea because I have been settling in and now have a fair amount of things I would want to sell before leaving. And it seems more and more likely that I will have to do something
  • Leave Soon/ASAP. This may be a good option for me. I could leave more at my own pace. It would reduce the chance of me being blacklisted by Vietnam immigration (which prevents or limits future re-entry). If I do go back to the U.S., I might as well go now, as we are getting into the nice weather.
  • Prepare to leave, then stay/wait. This is what I’m thinking I will do now. I’ll start doing some of the work of preparing to leave. That is, getting ready to sell things (taking pictures, writing ad copy, etc.) researching/planning logistics (flight availability, how the exit visa works, covid testing before flight, etc.). Then, I may do some of those, like selling some things. But otherwise, stay here. Then, if I have to leave, I am more prepared.

In my life, I try to go with the flow for living a good life, and it seems that the tides/current may be shifting.

If I do go back to the U.S., I have a plan. It would be fun. I don't want to leave Vietnam. And I don't like to up and sell all my stuff here, fly back, etc. etc. But really, It would not be that much of a problem. Of all the places I lived in the U.S., Vietnam is far better. There are some problems, but overall, I would rather live here than anywhere in the U.S. It would suck to leave, even if I go do something fun in the U.S..

------------------------

Well.. here’s a garden update. I built some shelves using mostly wood from pallets. That was a fun project and it felt good to build something. The wood is a poor choice for up here. In the rainy season, it will be soaked for weeks at a time. I may move all of them into the hallway for a couple months. There is enough room for them, and it would be an easier way to move the plants inside.


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This workbench is great. Before I was doing work on the ground, sitting on a small Asian stool-chair.
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Juice, from barlyegrass and young greens:
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the barleygrass
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I have stopped buying new plants, but continue with some cloning. So, between the clones and plants getting larger, the garden continues filling up. I never knew what I was doing with the orchids, but one of my coffee friends turned out to be an orchid expert, so he showed me some things about caring for them, how often to water, recognizing problems, cloning, etc. Any day now I will probably cut 6 or so new clones off that big one. The other clones from it are all doing well.


I also finally bought a bicycle. I have been riding around in the city, and also out on a wonderful coastal/hilly road.

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Here are some other recent pictures:

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I was sitting on a big rock, and this guy called me over. He made me coffee, which turned out to be pretty good. He said it was 15% coffee shitted out by a civet. (something I didnt ever intend on trying because it is stupid and abusive). He also showed me his big handmade knife. Nice guy.

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I got a custom seat made for my bike - to make it 2-3” taller than the normal seat. This is to extend the distance between seat and footpegs. It is much more ergonomic for my long legs.
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Buying wood for shelf-building:
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This is a bahn mi from a famous shop in a city a short drive from where I live. Anthony Bourdain went there for his “No Reservations” show. My friend recommended it. I almost didn’t go because I expected it is now one of those places that is popular because it is popular, and is now overpriced and cheesy, and too busy. But now was the time to go, not busy because of the Virus. And it is really good. I went back more times and I will go any time I go to that city.
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A wedding
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Last edited by C40 on Tue May 25, 2021 10:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Ego
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Ego »

Another spectacular update. Thanks for taking the time to write it and post the photos.
C40 wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 8:42 am
If I do go back to the U.S., I have a plan. It would be fun....
We had a similar feeling leaving South Africa. I was certain we would figure out some sort of arrangement where we spent six months traveling and six months living there. But then we returned to the US and I realized that with creativity we could reproduce our South African experience anywhere.

Jon Kabat-Zinn has a book titled, "Wherever you go, there you are." You have proven that wherever you go you have the capacity to make life pretty damn interesting.
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a movable feast. - Ernest Hemingway, to a friend, 1950
In this case, I believe, Paris is a metaphor. An experience. The movable feast is the thing.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Your rooftop garden is amazing!

Frugalchicos
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by Frugalchicos »

Always nice to see an update from you. Beautiful garden and impressive pictures.

I know I said it before, but everything started with your journal for me. Great source of inspiration!

ertyu
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by ertyu »

Enjoyed the update! Fingers crossed all ends up alright with visas and leaving/staying. Would opening your own business be an option at all? Digital nomad visa?? Having a friend hire you and pretend they're paying you while you front the cost of your work visa + income taxes etc? Way back when, we bribed the local police officer to pretend I wasn't there - any chance your current ward guys would be open? (though that does risk trouble at exit). Whatever you decide to do, hope it work out for the best

7Wannabe5
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Love your garden!

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C40
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Re: C40's Journal

Post by C40 »

ertyu wrote:
Thu May 27, 2021 7:39 am
Enjoyed the update! Fingers crossed all ends up alright with visas and leaving/staying. Would opening your own business be an option at all? Digital nomad visa?? Having a friend hire you and pretend they're paying you while you front the cost of your work visa + income taxes etc? Way back when, we bribed the local police officer to pretend I wasn't there - any chance your current ward guys would be open? (though that does risk trouble at exit). Whatever you decide to do, hope it work out for the best
On all of those, generally, no. Things are a bit different now. More strict. And if I am on the verge of leaving or getting kicked out, I don't want to use tactics that will get me kicked out. I want to avoid being blacklisted, so I can return in a couple years. I may ask my favorite coffee shop to hire me to work there. I doubt it will work out. I had considered trying that about 6 months ago, but decided not to at the time. I thought it might be in bad taste to do a job a Vietnamese person could. Or perhaps that the government could reject a work permit. But, IDK, wouldn't hurt to ask them

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